Techfuzonhttp://techfuzon.com
All Things Marketing and TechnologySun, 04 Jun 2017 15:41:18 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.7http://techfuzon.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/favicon-150x150.pngTechfuzonhttp://techfuzon.com
3232Tracking Subdomains in Google Analyticshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechFuzon/~3/aT--QzCf1Yo/
http://techfuzon.com/2017/05/21/tracking-subdomains-in-google-analytics/#respondSun, 21 May 2017 13:31:57 +0000http://techfuzon.com/?p=1015In one of my recent project, a requirement for tracking subdomains via Google Analytics came up. If you are using Universal analytics, there is no need to make any changes to the JavaScript code. In this posts, we’ll learn the step by step procedure to track subdomains via GA.

Creating view

It is advised that you create a view for your subdomains without applying any kind of filter.

Click on Admin tab after logging in.

Click on Create a new view.

Provide the Reporting View Name and click on Create View.

Adding Filter

After creating the view, click on the Admin tab.

Select the view in the dropdown menu and click on Filters.

3. Now write the name of the filter and click on Custom tab.

Select the Include radio button and configure it as per the image given below.

Click on Save and you are done.

Testing the Configuration
1. Click on Home tab present in the top navigation.
2. Click on the view you created in the first part of this tutorial.
3. Click on Real-Time and then on Overview.

Now visit the subdomain page of your website.

After a few seconds in the Google Analytics real-time section, you will see your subdomain listed in the Top Active Pages.

]]>http://techfuzon.com/2017/05/01/key-findings-from-750000-tech-job-listings/feed/0http://techfuzon.com/2017/05/01/key-findings-from-750000-tech-job-listings/Mapping Key Metrics to SaaS Growth Stageshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechFuzon/~3/7miZd7CD7hU/
http://techfuzon.com/2017/04/06/mapping-key-metrics-to-saas-growth-stages/#respondThu, 06 Apr 2017 09:27:03 +0000http://techfuzon.com/?p=1265In this this post I’ve covered how a SaaS provider can map growth to some of the key metrics instead of getting overwhelmed with plethora of metrics.
]]>http://techfuzon.com/2017/04/06/mapping-key-metrics-to-saas-growth-stages/feed/0http://techfuzon.com/2017/04/06/mapping-key-metrics-to-saas-growth-stages/How Mixed Reality Will Transform Advertisinghttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechFuzon/~3/8pxiwq_xU0E/
http://techfuzon.com/2017/02/03/how-mixed-reality-will-transform-advertising/#respondFri, 03 Feb 2017 10:10:29 +0000http://techfuzon.com/?p=1272In this post I’ve covered current impact of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality along with the key difference between of the technologies. Then the article goes on to cover Mixed Reality and its key elements such as:

Machine learning

Hyper-Personalization

Re-targeting

Geo-targeting

Governance

Ad blockers

Finally the article concludes by five use cases of advertising in the era of mixed reality.

]]>http://techfuzon.com/2017/02/03/how-mixed-reality-will-transform-advertising/feed/0http://techfuzon.com/2017/02/03/how-mixed-reality-will-transform-advertising/Smart Slider 3 is Hands Down the Best WordPress Slider Pluginhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechFuzon/~3/f8-ni1uiHyI/
http://techfuzon.com/2016/03/07/smart-slider-3-is-hands-down-the-best-wordpress-slider-plugin/#respondMon, 07 Mar 2016 09:59:14 +0000http://techfuzon.com/?p=998Here is the thing – I tried at least 10+ slider plugins for one of my latest project. It includes plugins like Meta Slider, Smooth Slider, Huge-IT Slider, Soliloquy, and many more. Finally when tried Smart Slider 3, I wished why didn’t get my hands on it in the first place. In this post, we’ll go through some of the major features that makes it stand out from the rest.

You can download the free version from the WordPress plugin repository and easily create multiple responsive sliders using layers and different animations. The control panel gives to option to set the font, position of text, add thumbnails. Finally the sliders can be added to your theme via widgets, shortcodes and php code. The slider will be optimized for search engine and touch friendly too.

Here is how it works:

Click on the smart slider link in the LHS menu to access the slider dashboard.

You will be able to see a sample slider pre-loaded with the plugin.

Creating a Slider

Click on “Create a slider” and specify slider name, width height along with the preset (Default, Thumbnail, Caption).

General Settings

In the “General Settings” you can configure plethora of options:

Controls

Mouse scroll

Mouse drag

Touch

Horizontal

Vertical

Keyboard

Alignment

Normal

Left

Center

Right

Animation settings

In the “OTHER” tab, there is also an option to add JavaScript callback.

Some of the background animations are:

Scale to left

Zoom

Fade

Curtain to left

Puzzle

Slider Options

There are many other customizable options like:

Arrow

Bullets

Autoplay

Bar

Thumbnail

Shadows

Individual Setting

By clicking on a particular slide, you can get into the individual slider settings and configure thumbnail, background, flll mode, slide duration.

In the layers, you can add Text, Button, Image, Heading, YouTube and Vimeo video.

Finally preview your slider and implement it in your theme by adding short code, php code or directly from the post/page editor.

]]>http://techfuzon.com/2016/02/01/upload-files-to-amazon-s3-with-meteor-slingshot/feed/0http://techfuzon.com/2016/02/01/upload-files-to-amazon-s3-with-meteor-slingshot/Customer Match: Use Email List to Target Customers on Gmail, Search and Youtubehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechFuzon/~3/xmUoX9K6SZ0/
http://techfuzon.com/2015/09/30/customer-match-use-email-list-to-target-customers-on-gmail-search-and-youtube/#respondWed, 30 Sep 2015 07:21:47 +0000http://techfuzon.com/?p=922Google is on the verge of releasing a new AdWords feature that will let advertisers target customers by uploading the email list. This will span across Google’s established platforms like Gmail, Search and Youtube TrueView ads to target customer segments with tailored ads on multiple devices.

The emails would be uploaded via AdWord API or manually and the list data would be matched with Google sign in emails. The important thing to notice here is that Google has taken care of anonymity along with privacy policy.

In addition to this, Google will also provide opportunity to advertisers to target audiences who are not in their list but match the profile of the customer uploaded by them. This way advertisers will be able to get better conversion rate as the likely hood of such audiences purchasing the product becomes more.This type of advertising is certainly better than targeting audiences based on information scrapped from their website visit. Ad buyers will surely love this kind of precise ad targeting and pay of it.

Although Facebook has been doing similar type of targeting through its ad platform, Google finally chose to implement this ad tech probably because of its huge demand. Google’s focus on making the core search product robust and adhering to regulatory policies of user privacy might have put this AdWord feature on the backseat.

In the end let’s check out what Mr. Sridhar Ramaswamy (Google’s SVP of ads and commerce) said to explain the feature in a press release:

“A travel brand can upload the names of people in its rewards program, who will then be served ads from that travel brand the next time they are searching a relevant term. Similarly those ads (or others like them) can then follow a user when she or he visits YouTube or checking email on Gmail.”

“Whether they’re searching on Google, checking promotions on Gmail, or watching videos on YouTube, we can deliver the most relevant information based on what they’re doing, wherever they are, when they’re looking, and on any device they’re using. Today, we’re building on these capabilities with new ads innovations to deliver even more relevance.”

]]>http://techfuzon.com/2015/09/30/customer-match-use-email-list-to-target-customers-on-gmail-search-and-youtube/feed/0http://techfuzon.com/2015/09/30/customer-match-use-email-list-to-target-customers-on-gmail-search-and-youtube/Growth hacking with Product Hunthttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechFuzon/~3/ZhgjLlnkx2A/
http://techfuzon.com/2015/09/22/growth-hacking-with-product-hunt/#respondTue, 22 Sep 2015 20:51:32 +0000http://techfuzon.com/?p=850Product Hunt (PH) is a unique social network where users come together to find and share latest apps, technology products and websites. Product hunters or submitter generally post a new product that they personally like and believe that it has good potential. Then other users upvote it and start discussing about that product. The curated list of products generally come with a new approach and latest technology to solve real life problems. Apart from that it has also become a hub to give and receive feedback on products, share insights, connect with prospective users to answer various queries and get a direct line to interested investors.

A fast growing picture messaging app called TapTalk closed a seed round investment from SV Angels after getting listed on Product Hunt. UltraText, a simple GIF making app got substantial amount of download after getting featured on Product Hunt and bagged media coverage from TechCrunch and The Verge. Here is what Andrew Farmer, founder of UltraText has to say about PH listing:

That said its’s not easy to get featured on the home page, leave alone gaining feedback, traction or investor interest from Product Hunt. Here is the statement straight from the horse’s mouth (Erik Torenberg, founding team of PH).

Gaining considerable growth from PH requires extensive planning and sharp execution. You can either gain tons of traffic or be happy with 9 upvotes and 3 sign ups from the listing. In this post we’ll discuss some of the best practices to follow to make the best out of Product Hunt. I’ve divided this post into three parts:

Preparation for listing

Getting listed

Final onslaught

Now, let’s get into the preparation mode. This is the crucial part of the planning.

Engagement

The very first thing that you should do in a any kind of community is engage with the community (no rocket science here). I would say that you should approach the community with a sense to bond with users over common interests and contribute to the community. So, how do we do that?

Up-voting

When you land the product hunt home page you see the list of products. Check out the ones that look interesting and start up-voting. Besides this you can also search for products based on your interest and up-vote them. This is a simple yet effective way to get started and explore the platform.

According to data released by PH, by the end of 2014 following is the number of up-votes and comments:

Social Sharing

Share the products that you really like on your social media pages. This way you would get noticed by the product makers.

Creating collections

There is a feature to create collections in Product hunt. These are basically a list of products that you truly love and believe that the product can have impact on others. According to PH’s 2014 data, there were 3652 collections.

It would be really nice to build collection surrounding the product offered by you. For example if I’m building an app related to images, I could create an collection for photography products, vector graphics. A CRM app builder could create a collection of cloud based phone system apps, proposal apps.

Identifying influencers

On Product Hunt you’ll find following type of users:

Users who can comment

Submit products for review

Submit products for listing

Moderators

Administrators

For you important users are those who are the top hunters. Visit Hunter List and All Time Leaderboard to identify them and short list top hunters who have submitted products related your product. Then you need to start engaging with them by posting useful comments on their blog, re-tweeting them. Who doesn’t like to know that the content shared by them is getting shared and making positive impact! Just remember that you should do this from your personal account, not from the product’s account. Also keep in mind that you must not go blazing on twitter or their blog almost behaving like a spammer. These influencers can be approached later on when you are ready to launch on Product Hunt. We’ll discuss about this later on.

You can also use twitter to search for product hunters who have submitted similar products. Here is the search query:

via “on @producthunt” from:producthunt

Meetups

You should take part in one of the PH meetups or organize one in your city. While that later one can be time and resource consuming, you surely benefit from the bigwigs of PH. Also meetups are great for building network and interact with variety of people (from designing to marketing). Here is the link to find out upcoming events and host a PH meetup.

List building

Use Betalist in your pre-launch stage to build email contact list of prospective product users. Create a landing page and make sure that signup process is friction less (read gather only email id). Also you could feature on StartupList to aggregate more number of email contacts.

Leveraging social groups

Join the most popular and active Facebook and LinkedIn groups pertaining to your product and start posting some useful content. The idea behind this is to gain trust of the group members and make yourself credible. You could also approach the group admin for an interview and post it on own blog or as a guest blog-post on other blog. This way you are doing something nice for someone without asking for anything (yet) and building a good rapport. In return they would be happy to help you in the future.

Preparing friends and peers

Let your peers, friends and relatives know what you are trying to achieve. Prepare them for the D-Day and let them know that you would need their help soon.

Avoiding Getting hunted

If your product is good, it is very much likely that somebody will hunt you. So keep your eyes and ears open, more importantly set up alert using notify.ly . Here is what the smart founder of Kilometer.io did, when they got hunted before they were ready.

Within 5 minutes they were hidden and pushed to the upcoming section. This way you’ll always be in control of your PH launch. You can also get a “Please Don’t Hunt Me Yet” badge for your site.

Now, we’ll go through the stuffs related to getting listed.

Develop a landing page

Developing a landing a page customized for the PH community with exclusive deal or offer can significantly increase conversion and uplift the interest of the members. Here is how Packet Zoom did it for their campaign.

By providing PH exclusive offer you can claim a gold star to be placed on your listing. Make the request here. This is a boost to the visibility of your listing.

You can use a free tool called introbar to place a banner on your site and show the deal to visitors coming only from PH. In the end don’t forget to add Google Analytics tracking or any other tracking code used by you.

Set time and day

Can you guess what is the prime time and day to get listed on PH? Here is the data to help you out:

As you can see, it is best to get listed on a Tuesday at 7 AM (PST).

Ask for listing

Remember the influencers or top hunters you found out earlier to get your product listed. If you have done some kind of engagement, you can politely ask them for their email id. Once you have it, send a brief email giving them access to your product. Once they are on-board, simply request them to submit your website to PH.

This brings us to the last phase. Now we’ll discuss how to get cosmic traffic and initiate the chain reaction after getting listed.

Introduce Yourself

The very first thing after getting listed is to make sure that you ask the submitter to mark you as the Maker and thank the good soul. Once you are able to comment, introduce yourself with a realistic story. Add your team members who helped you build that amazing product. Here is how Sandeep from DevMag.io wrote about the story behind their product and asked for feedback:

Setup notification

Use Mention.com to track the conversations happening around your product. As discussed earlier you can also use Notify.ly to receive slack notification for each mention. As a safety net, I’d also recommend using ProductHuntAlert to get message in case your domain gets mentioned elsewhere in PH.

Release the Madness

Inform all the contacts you have created in the preparation phase that your product got listed on PH. Post on your personal as well as company’s social media accounts about the listing. It is a nice idea to schedule a series of tweets and writing a quick blog post. Keep in mind that you must not ask them to upvote, as that’s against policy and also it won’t actually help you in getting market validation. Just ask them to participate and post useful comments if they can. Remember the LinkedIn group admin whom you had interviewed? Yeah, now is the time to reap benefit. Inform them before hand that on this particular date you would need their help to promote your Product Hunt listing in the group.

Depending on how quick the number of upvotes the listing is able to generate, the ranking will improve. Make sure that you follow each member who up-votes you both on twitter and product hunt. Also, don’t forget to thank them.

Stay up late and wake up early

This is important considering the fact that you are doing an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on PH. Community members love to interact and give feedback. They truly love it when makers answer their queries as soon as possible.

Generate PR buzz

If your are really trending on Product Hunt, gracefully inform some of the important media companies via tweets about your success. They might tweet about you and if you are lucky they would even write a post about your product. This is what happened when Business Insider mentioned Startup Stash in a tweet:

Blog

Write a post mortem blog post of the once in a lifetime limelight of Product Hunt. Share an honest review of your experience along with all the valid data points using your analytics data. You can publish the post on medium.com/company blog/inbound.org. Finally you could link the post to your very first comment on PH page. The community is a sucker for nice review posts and final outcome of the listing.

Conclusion

Although Product Hunt can give significant boost to your product, it is not really for all the products. So think before embarking on this path. Will this product really gain something out of the listing? Will the PH community really benefit from the product? If answer is yes, then go ahead and finish up the FAQs. It would save you some time and lots of headache in the future. If you have anything else in mind or just want to share your experience with PH, please post in the comments section.

]]>http://techfuzon.com/2015/09/22/growth-hacking-with-product-hunt/feed/0http://techfuzon.com/2015/09/22/growth-hacking-with-product-hunt/React Primer Converting HTML into React Componentshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechFuzon/~3/v03gL7Yw2m8/
http://techfuzon.com/2015/07/02/react-primer-converting-html-into-react-components/#respondThu, 02 Jul 2015 20:15:32 +0000http://techfuzon.com/?p=634Introduction
React is a JavaScript library developed by Facebook and Instagram for developing reusable user interface components. These UI components can have their own state and properties, while keeping in sync with other components sharing the same data. In very simple words, many consider it as the ‘V’ in MVC. In this article, the readers will learn basics of React, some of the key features and their usage.

Key Features
Some of the key features are JSX, Virtual DOM and downward dataflow. Now, we’ll go through them one by one.

JSX – JavaScript XML syntax
In a nutshell, JSX is the syntax of React, which is nothing but a specialised version of JavaScript. It helps developers write HTML type component markups and binding events. In the very end JSX will eventually be transformed into regular JavaScript. One important thing to note here is that it is not mandatory to use JSX. Let’s glance at the difference between React using pure JavaScript and JSX with a simple example:

Here the JSX Transformer is primarily representing the actual DOM node, that needs to be rendered. You can check out the elaborate and easy to understand documentation for JSX to learn more.

Virtual DOM
The virtual DOM is mirror of the browser’s actual DOM. When an object changes, React first finds out the difference or delta of the changes. After that reconciliation is done to update the DOM with result of the difference found out in the first step. Because of this, React performs well by only re-rending the changed DOM. As React uses virtual DOM, we can also render it in server side to generate server-side React views.

Downward dataflow
The architecture of React only supports downward dataflow. The reasoning behind this is to make the components immutable and only respond to data coming from upstream rather than from each other. This way whenever data gets changed in upstream, any component making use of that data will be automatically be re-rendered to reflect any changes. This kind of data binding can be handled via a methodology called Flux. You can go through the overview of Flux at React documentation hub. It will be worthwhile to note that Flux differs from a typical MVC and behaves like an Event bus by queueing up actions as Promises and executes them as they are received. .

Getting Started
It is very easy to get started with React. All you need to do is download the React starter kit and include react.js it in the document head or simply use a CDN. You can also fork the JSFiddle provided by the React team.

Project Setup

In this tutorial, we’ll take a simple html “radio group” and covert it into react components. Let’s create a new folder called react-project and inside this create another folder called components. Inside react-project, create a file called index.html and Inside components create a file called Demo.jsx.

We created our very first react component called Demo and passed an object to React.createClass. We defined render method to return the HTML that we wanted to render. If you look closely, you’ll see pure HTML radio group inside return for selecting a particular expertise. As we discussed previously, that JSX will be eventually converted to regular JavaScript, you would notice that we have used className in place of class(a reserved word in JS).

In our HTML file we have included React, in-browser JSX transformer (to transform JSX file into JavaScript) via CDN and JSX file (Demo.jsx) to link-in the demo component. It is not recommended to use the in-browser JSX transformer in production application, as it is heavy and slow. We’ll learn about better way of JSX transformation in the subsequent part of this tutorial.

Now, in order to render demo component, we are passing it via var demo = React.createElement(Demo); and rending it onto document.body. At this point, you can start a server and see the live radio group in the browser. Download the git repo for this part of tutorial.

Component Refactoring
If you look at out the radio group HTML code, you would notice repetition of paragraph, label and value for all options.

Here props object is used to access component’s properties. We are passing value property to the input by{this.props.value} and accessing RadioOption tag’s content by using {this.props.children}. Now, let’s just go back to Demo.jsx file and use RadioOption custom tag to create the radio options. In the end we’ll be left with the text box for other option. As we can’t use RadioOption tag to replace this, we’ll simply create another component RadioOtherOption.jsx file. Copy the following into this file:

Till now we converted HTML to React component and added couple of extra components to simplify the code. Now, we’ll further simplify our code by adding another component and passing properties to it. Basically what we need to do is create an array of options and pass that into the new component. We’ll call our new component radioOptionGroup. So, let’s create the JavaScript array of objects in Demo.jsx.

We’ll loop through the array and create radioOption components. Now, delete the RadioOption tags, create a RadioOptionGroup tag and pass the radioOptions array as an options property. Given below is the final code of Demo.jsx:

We have the options in the props. So we are looping over that and for each of them, we are creating one of those radio options. We are using map, which is ES5 JavaScript method on arrays. The map method of this.props.options array is called to pass a function which is in turn passing us each option as RadioOption component. Here, option.value has been used to fetch option value and option.label to fetch option label. While using map, it should be noted that each child in an array should have unique key property, which is key={option.value} in this case. Also, React requires us to return only one root element. So have wrapped all our elements including RadioOtherOption in a div. Download the git repo for property passing.

Toggling Elements
In this section, we’ll be making the Other expertise radio optional. Basically we need to add a property to turn this on or off. Go to Demo.jsx and change <RadioOptionGroup options={radioOptions} /> to <RadioOptionGroup other={true} options={radioOptions} />. Now, let’s open up RadioOptionGroup.jsx and use {this.props.other} to decide whether we would render <RadioOtherOption/> or not. In order to achieve that, we’ll use a ternary expression {this.props.other ? <RadioOtherOption/> : <div/>. So, <RadioOtherOption/> will be rendered whenever other is true, otherwise an empty div will be rendered.

Listening to Events
In this section of tutorial, we’ll make the text box appear only when the other option is selected. We are going to achieve that by using something called state. Contrary to props, which are define during componet initialisation, we should think of state as an internal data-set that affects rendering of components. Basically when the other option’s state changes, we would either show or hide the text box Now, let’s head over to RadioOtherOption.jsx file. Here we will add onChange event to the Other radio option and have it call a methodhandleChange. This handleChange will receive an event and event.targetproperty will reference the other radio option. We’ll be using this.setState method to change the state of the component.
Given below is the code for handleChange method:

The ternary operator will render the text box, whenever the other radio option will be selected. We should note that when this component will render, this.state would be null. So, let’s use getInitialState method to keep the other option in unselected state while rendering the component for the first time. Given below is the code for your reference:

getInitialState: function () {
return {
checked: false
};
}

Following reset method would be added to reset the state to unselected state:

reset : function(){
this.setState({checked : false});
}

Finally, in RadioOptionGroup.jsx file, let’s add ref="radioOther" to radioOtherOption tag. We’ll also add onCheck={self.handleCheck} to RadioOption tag, which will call handleCheck method. This method will be used to reset the other radio option. In the end, RadioOptionGroup.jsx would look like the following:

Run the following in your command line: npm install -g react-tools. Create a build directory to hold all the build files and run the following command to create JavaScript files out of the JSX files:jsx -x jsx components/ build/

This will generate JS files for you to link-in from index.html. You can safely omit the linkage of JSX files along with the JSXTransformer from the index.html.

Conclusion

In this article we learned some of the key concepts of React and JSX. The way React is gaining popularity, it is definitely the framework to look forward to. I hope you’ll experiment with React and finally give it a go in your next project. Don’t forget to checkout some of the popular React APIs and post your queries and feedback via comments.

Insurance and Financial services companies have always been behind the curve when it comes to adoption of new media for marketing purpose owing to strict regulations on communication, reputation risk and complex target audience. But, the landscape for digital marketing in this industry is changing fast lately. The vast adoption of digital channels and exponential growth in the usage of mobile devices have redefined the way financial institutions build relation with customers and engage them. The marketers from these institutions are embracing the change by providing superb online and mobile applications for seamless and omni-channel customer experience. This is very much evident from the research finding that depicts growing digital ad spend from 2011 to 2016 in financial services industry, increasing digital spend by insurers and the fact that top 25 financial institutions in US are deploying mobile apps with advanced features. Insurers are using mobile apps that generate animations and videos visualizing common risks of everyday life, with the goal of engaging customers in a more persuasive fashion.

According to a research done by McKinsey Global Institute, “The Social Economy: Unlocking and Productivity through Social Technologies” it was found that social media adds 5.2% to companies’ top-line revenue and bolsters the productivity of marketing unit. Particularly for financial services industry, customers in United States think that digital presence is very important and the industry needs to keep up with the expectation. This essentially points that adoption of digital can lead to increased customer satisfaction and significant contribution to revenue. Now if we take the case of insurance industry, Gartner estimates that by the end of 2015, personal lines property and casualty (P&C) insurers that do not offer online and mobile transactions will lose one-quarter of their current market share. Moreover according to a research conducted by Bain & Co., in Germany consumers prefer digital communication channel over all other traditional channels in each stage of insurance buying cycle (Information Gathering, Advice, Purchase, Customer Service/Back Office, Claims). In UK, 50% of insurance policies were bought online according to a survey conducted by PwC in May, 2014.

Now that we understand the criticality of digital technology in marketing, let’s focus on the three key factors which are driving the digital bandwagon:

Conversion cost

Irrespective of the channel used in marketing, there is always an aim to make a conversion. It can be either generating a lead or completing a sale. According to a report by McKinsey, banks spend between $70 and $300 to acquire a new customer. This acquisition cost can be reduced by 30% by using of social technology across the banking and insurance companies. Moreover when we compare website conversion rate of financial services with other industries, clearly this industry is the winner with a 10 percent conversion rate. Powered with great content, thorough application of Search Engine Optimization techniques and user experience (UX) design, it is very much possible to bolster this conversion rate.

In November 2010, American Express had started Small Business Saturday campaign to generate sales for its small business customers. They leveraged power of social media by launching Facebook advertising campaign and helped the participating small business by providing free advertising. That year small businesses saw a 28% increment in revenue in comparison to previous year and next year there was a 23% increment in transactions with respect to Amex Card Members.

Customer Behavior Data

Actionable insights driven from deep understanding of customer behavior plays a very important role in the much sought after relationship based marketing. Social media provides huge amount of customer data based on actual interests and connections for targeting audience in a way better than traditional media. For example, customers broadcast various major life events to their social network like first vehicle (potential for auto insurer along with fuel card provider), child birth (leads to life insurance), and new home (property insurance), marriage (scope for travel related financial service for honeymoon and general loans).

There is also ample opportunity to conduct A/B test or multivariate test in social ad campaigns which gives great flexibility to find out what exactly works. Group of customers who interact significantly with each other on social platform and share similar demography generally go through same phase of their lives during a particular time period. This can be very well leveraged by financial services companies to tap into sales of various products and services across the customer connections.

Customer Loyalty

It is an industry wide fact that every company thrives for customer loyalty by providing great customer service. Customer service becomes all the more critical in case of financial services because of the very nature of the financial products (intangible and usage over a period of time to realize the value). Social media can provide two-pronged usage when it comes to building customer loyalty.

It can act as a medium to provide resolution of service requests for better customer experience.

Social media can also be used as a tool to generate new product ideas and educate customers about existing products.

While social media as a CRM tool continues to grow, financial and insurance companies can integrate this media in their service offering in order to hook the digital savvy customers to their brand. In this direction ICICI bank has taken a step to let their customers carry out various banking operations like transferring money, viewing transactions, recharging prepaid mobile via Twitter. Some insurers like Farmers, Northwestern Mutual and Thrivent have started harnessing power of customer conversion via social CRM in order to cement their relationship with customers.

Coming to engaging customers on mobile device, let’s go though some of notable examples. NTUC Income in Singapore offers a travel insurance app that enables customers to buy travel insurance all over the world, access an accident guide in case of accident, monitor flights and so on. On the latter front, life insurers, including Generali France and John Hancock have launched mobile apps on which agents can view customers’ investment portfolio details, fund performance and payment history. American Family Insurance has successfully launched a social mobile game called “I-Am-Fam” to engage, educate existing and potential customers.

In the conclusion it won’t be out of context to point out that digital media as a tool has significant impact on various stages of customer life cycle. It will be worthwhile to see how the financial services institutions will be able to use this media to generate value for the customers.